Suspect Arrested in (Tacoma) Wash. Mall Shootings (AP)

[Up2Late]

(I didn't see this posted, thought it was important, though tragic.)

Nov 20, 7:41 PM EST

Suspect Arrested in Wash. Mall Shootings

By RACHEL LA CORTE
Associated Press Writer

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) -- A gunman opened fire inside a busy shopping mall Sunday, wounding several people in the halls and taking three people hostage in a music store before police arrested him, authorities said. Witnesses described hearing a noise and then seeing a man walking backward through the mall, firing.

At least six people were injured, one critically, as shoppers and store clerks scrambled for cover. Tacoma Police spokesman Mark Fulghum said the suspect, arrested about four hours after the shooting began, was a young man but he had no other details about him or his possible motives.

Police were interviewing the victims and hostages, he said. While the suspect was still inside the Sam Goody music store, employee Joe Hudson was able to pick up the phone and say he and others had been taken hostage. Hudson said little more but could be hearing telling others that he was talking to The Associated Press.

Authorities got the call about 12:15 p.m. that shots had been fired inside the Tacoma Mall. The caller said there was a gunman, "He was in the mall, walking along, firing," Fulghum said. State Patrol and police units from nearby agencies clustered around an entrance at the south end.

<http://staging.hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MALL_SHOOTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-11-20-19-41-22>

(more at link above)

[BJW]

1. there's another thread already posted some time ago

[merwin]

3. That thread was about the shootings... He's been holed up in a Sam Goody

for hours

[MrBenchley]

2. More on this....

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051120/tacoma_shooting_051120/20051120?hub=World

Tacoma, you might recall, is the home of the infamous Bullseye Gun Shop, which armed BOTH the Beltway Sniper and Buford Furrow (who shot up a daycare center at a synagogue and killed a postman). Bullseye had all in all "lost track" of more than 200 guns.

Absurdly, the Bullseye folks remain open for business anyway...and thatnks to the GOP, they've been freed from the responsibilty of keeping a writtten inventory (the Tiahrt amendment) so that no one will know how many guns they lose track of from now on.

[f-bush]

4. Please don't hold it against us

Please't hold it against us. I have lived in Tacoma off and on for forty years and this town is getting more and more progressive with each election. I just wonder what kind of woundedness this poor twenty year was carrying around with him-Peace-TacomaMikeC

[MrBenchley]

5. Not holding it at all against Tacoma

I'm putting a share of the blame on the gun lobby and the GOP, which has put America in the line of fire.

By the way....

"Jerry Rhodes III, a 17-year-old who said he was a member of the Army National Guard who lives in Tacoma, recalled that he was in the Spencer's Gift Shop when he saw a man walk by shooting an AK-47."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/249058_shooting20ww.html

Wasn't it nice of pResident Turd and the GOP to block renewal of the assault weapons ban? It will be the gift to gun nuts that goes on "giving".....